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Giovanni Capoccia, Oxford University, giovanni.capoccia@ccc.ox.ac.uk

The study of economic “hard times” and their political consequences raises important questions for qualitative methodology as well as for the possibilities and challenges of “multi-method” research. For example, what can conceptual analysis offer in establishing comparability of economic and political crises that take place at different historical moments? What role should be given to historical learning on the possibility of comparing different crises, and how should learning be studied? How can qualitative methodological tools best capture the importance of diffusion processes, and economic and political interdependency? How can qualitative methods be most usefully integrated within quantitative analyses of diffusion processes? What challenges do these processes pose for comparative historical analysis? What are the limits and the potential of sub-national comparisons in the analysis of economic downturn and its consequences? Is the current economic crisis creating new types of “hybrid regimes”, and how does this affect our strategies of conceptualization of regime types?

As always, the Organized Section on Qualitative and Multi-Method Research welcomes paper and panel proposals, from all substantive subfields of political science, on the whole breadth of qualitative methods. These include (but are not limited to): the case study method; small-N and paired comparison; conceptual analysis and measurement; within-case analysis; comparative historical analysis; constructivism and interpretive methods; issues of research design; and strategies of field research. In addition, the section encourages proposals that address the methodological and epistemological issues arising from the integration of qualitative and quantitative methods.